Learning Intentions: What Do You Want Students to Understand?
Success Criteria: How Can Students Show They Know and Understand?
Considerations for Writing Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
The Exemplary Classroom
Conclusion
Do-Now Suggestions for Your Classroom or Collaborative Team
2 How to FRAME the First Ten Minutes of Class
Focus
Reach
Ask
Model
Encourage
The Exemplary Classroom
Conclusion
Do-Now Suggestions for Your Classroom or Collaborative Team
3 How to Embed FRAME Within a Lesson
Focus
Reach
Ask
Model
Encourage
The Exemplary Classroom
Conclusion
Do-Now Suggestions for Your Classroom or Collaborative Team
4 How to Use FRAME for Peer Observation and Feedback Among Teachers
Key Aspects of Using FRAME for Peer Observation
The Exemplary Classroom
Conclusion
Do-Now Suggestions for Your Classroom or Collaborative Team
Appendix: FRAME Lesson and Feedback Tools
About the Author
Peg Grafwallner, MEd, is an instructional coach and reading specialist at Ronald Reagan High School, an urban International Baccalaureate school located on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Peg has more than twenty-five years of experience in the field of education. She began her career as an English teacher at a private high school and eventually became an alternative education teacher in a suburban district. She has taught graduate-level courses on reading and writing in the content areas, with an emphasis on differentiation and interventions. She now supports teachers in seamlessly embedding literacy without disrupting their classroom objectives. Peg models how to create comprehensive literacy lessons that enhance skill-building and coaches and assists teachers in creating these lessons.
Peg is a member of the Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA), the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English (WCTE), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). As the parent of a gifted and talented son and a special education daughter, Peg offers a unique educational lens that focuses on supporting students of all abilities in realizing their potential in the classroom and beyond. She is a blogger, author, and national presenter whose topics include coaching, engagement, and inclusion. Her articles have appeared in The Missouri Reader, the Exceptional Parent, the WSRA Journal, and the Illinois Reading Council Journal. She has written for several websites and blogs, including Edutopia, ASCD InService, Education Week’s Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo, KQED’s In the Classroom, and Literacy & NCTE. She has also appeared on numerous podcasts such as Cult of Pedagogy, BAM! Radio, and Ed: Conversations About the Teaching Life. Peg is also the author of Lessons Learned From the Special Education Classroom: Creating Opportunities for All Students to Listen, Learn, and Lead.
Peg received a bachelor’s degree in English and a mentoring certification from Cardinal Stritch University, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and an alternative education certification from Marian College, and a reading specialist certification from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
To learn more about Peg’s work, visit www.peggrafwallner.com and follow her on Twitter @PegGrafwallner.
To book Peg Grafwallner for professional development, contact [email protected].
Introduction
Most K–12 novice and veteran teachers emphasize their course content but struggle to deliver it in engaging and inspiring ways. While sharing content is indeed important, it is equally important that teachers design a classroom structure that creates enthusiasm and excitement for learning. If teachers do not form a curious community of learners, the most crucial content will go unheard and unlearned. When teachers do not deliver content meaningfully, students get bored, tired, and frustrated. According to a 2010 German study, “Boredom ‘instigates a desire to escape from the situation’ that causes boredom” (Jason, 2017). Therefore, as students become increasingly bored, they look for ways to leave the classroom—the bathroom break, the trip to the nurse’s office, the phone call home, or even daydreaming—anything to escape.
While observing, listening, and learning with teachers in classrooms, workshops, and graduate classes, I have noticed an emphasis on the immediate delivery of content but not necessarily a structured method with which to deliver it, implement it, or assess it such that it holds students’ interest. Having such a structured method benefits both novice and veteran teachers because students will thrive knowing what the upcoming lesson will be about, how the teacher will implement that lesson, and how it will be assessed. For example, if a ninth-grade English lesson is focused on writing an academic essay, and the teacher introduces it in just those words, “Good morning students, today we will write an academic essay,” students might be unclear, overwhelmed, and anxious. They might have questions, like the following: What is an academic essay? How do I write one? What background do I need to know? How will I know if I’ve written a good one? Such questions can form a barrier to engagement when students aren’t confident in receiving answers. Before the content is even delivered to students, teachers can engage students to want to be a part of the learning process by establishing a structure in which students know they will receive a clear road map with an opportunity to ask questions about the directions, a chance to see a model of the finished work, and the opportunity to reflect on the process.
Designing an organized, engaging, and motivating classroom experience does not have to be overwhelming or worrisome. In this book, I present the FRAME model, which is an easy-to-follow protocol that will help teachers support all students of all abilities. FRAME is a helpful acronym that includes five components: (1) focus, (2) reach, (3) ask, (4) model, and (5) encourage. This protocol for teachers and students clarifies learning expectations and provides a consistent structure of support.